April 02, 2013 -- After a very long, cold winter, Monica Rimar of Moosup is busily planning “a nice vacation to someplace warm,” thanks to matching five “Lucky for Life” numbers on March 7 and winning the game’s $25,000 prize.

Rimar’s ticket missed matching the Lucky Ball number, 3, but won the game’s second highest prize—$25,000—for matching 5 of her family’s “birthday numbers” with the other five winning numbers drawn, 3 - 11 - 13 - 23 - 32. Across New England, 71,126 winning Lucky for Life tickets were purchased for March 7. A total of 22,937 tickets were sold in CT alone with prizes ranging from $2 to $25,000. Lucky for Life’s top prize is worth a life-altering $1,000 a day, every day for life.

“When I looked on the lottery’s website and saw that I matched all five numbers, it was really pretty surprising,” Rimar told Lottery officials. “I had to ask my mom to double check my ticket for me just to be sure!”

Since the “first” Lucky for Life drawing on March 15, 2012, there have been 2,554,101 Lucky winning tickets sold in CT alone, including 2 top prize winning tickets—and the number keeps on growing.

For her Lucky 5 number match, Rimar claimed a prize check for $17,075 (value after taxes) at Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill. Rimar’s winning ticket was purchased at Super Stop & Shop, located at 1094 Killingly Commons Drive in Dayville.